The Return Of The Good Old Days

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”

– Franklin D Roosevelt

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted a blog. I think that in part I’ve just developed a degree of Trump fatigue, the circus surrounding him and the classless schadenfreude of his advisors towards anyone in disagreement with them seemed to be perpetually on the news cycle. It turned into a seeming never-ending existence of listening to increasingly delusional, spiteful, hypocritical, xenophobic rhetoric. Oh, and let’s not forget the lies, the repeated and consistent lies which seem to occur whenever team Trump open their mouths and deign to speak to the masses through their pet punching bag, the media. Anyone who suggested that Hair Hitler just be himself couldn’t have given him worse advice. Although looking at the swamp cabinet and cabal of emotional dullards known as advisors, I’m sure he’s been given worse advice. Anyway, the reality of the inauguration and the ‘American Carnage’ speech has woken me from my resigned stupor.

I’ve observed the first 7 days of this plutocratic insurgency with a mixture of awe and bemusement. And I’ll be honest, the anarchist in me who relishes the idea of neo-colonial power structures being torn down through accident or design, is perversely entertained by it all for a variety of reasons. Obviously, there’s the man himself. Watching him speak is a treat, his arms outstretched incongruous with his words at points when he is trying to impress with sincerity but oblivious to the fact that a sharp tongue is not indicative of a keen mind. And then there’s the ramblings, the seeming inability to complete a sentence when he has to respond to questions spontaneously, alongside an obvious inability to read fluently. Have you ever heard anyone emote on the wrong word so consistently or pause for emphasis mid-sentence so inappropriately? And his appearance goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, best summed up by the description of my 11-year-old niece who said, “he looks like an orange panda in reverse”. So I admit there’s a guilty pleasure to watching Sunburnt Stalin. Then there’s the bemusement of a number of his supporters who are suddenly realising that the GOP’s promises about affordable healthcare are as useful as condoms are to a eunuch. How y’all doing Kentucky?

The pace at which Herr Drumpf has changed the political landscape has been admirable in its speed, recklessness and populist emphasis. He has spoken to his core constituency with his actions, grabbing America (and the world) by the pussy in signing away support for abortion programmes. He’s shown his contempt for environmentalists with two presidential decrees that will shortly reopen construction of two oil pipelines. His approach to international relations is like his approach to friendship – who needs it? Case in point, Mexico. Drumpf says, “We’re building a wall. They’re paying for it. F*** ‘em”, no matter how unrealistic that is in reality. You down with TPP? Hell no, not me says Trump, ambivalent at the fact that millions of American jobs are dependent on it. He threatened martial law in an American City via Twitter, a presidential first, and then complemented that with a typically aggressive and reactionary set of announcements on torture that he didn’t bother to run by his experts such as the CIA. And the Muslim and refugee ban? I’ll save discussion on that for another day. Wow, you’ve got to admire his balls. He certainly admires his balls. He told us at the first Republican Leadership debate with Marco Rubio, when he also reassured us that his penis was a decent size. Has any president (or any man at all) cared more about size? His hands. His dick. His inauguration crowd. So of course his reaction is to initiate a major investigation into voter fraud because his reality can’t allow for the fact that although he won the election, he lost the popular vote. Bigly.

As Trump signed one of his executive actions to reopen a pipeline, he promised us that ‘it was a return to the old days, the good old days’. Yeah? Good for whom? I don’t know any minorities who think the old days in America were good for them. Maybe Ben Carson and the other Boangling negroes but that’s about it. Certainly wasn’t a barrel of laughs for gay people or transsexuals. And come to think of it, women weren’t particularly favoured but hey, apparently white women would rather have their pussies grabbed by a sexual deviant who’d like to sleep with his own daughter than share a bus with an immigrant or hang out with a Muslim. At least 53% of American white women who voted, anyway. But the kleptocracy doesn’t give a shit about those people, or any people for that matter. As long as they can befuddle and distract by bullying, dividing, insulting, tweeting and throwing enough scraps to their dogs (that’s how they see you Kentucky, Michigan etc) then they can get on with the real task of making the wealthy even more wealthy.

I sign off with another plea to the media. Stop being pussies. Seriously. American journalists seem to have developed an inability to follow up questions. If it takes coordination then for God’s sake, do it. If you’re at a press conference and a question from a rival broadcaster or newspaper isn’t answered, be relentless and follow it up. Your press freedom has made you fat and lazy and now you have the chance to truly show that the 1st Amendment means something to you. Fight back. Investigate this swamp cabinet. Don’t tolerate their hypocrisy. When Reince Priebus says they won’t stand for the delegitimising of their Orange Emperor remind him that the GOP did it for 8 years. For f***s sake, stop normalising him. Otherwise it will truly be the good old days, the good old days of colonial rule and dictatorships. And to quote the inimitable KellyAnne Conway, that’s not an exaggeration or a lie – it’s an alternative fact.